Playing Catch-Up

Sorry to everyone (haha-Theresa especially!) for the delay in updating this blog... this week has been probably the most stressful I have had since I came to Cambridge. I had a big paper due this morning, which was a huge relief to turn in. I cannot even begin to explain how wonderful it was to have that off my chest! I came home and collapsed, having gotten entirely too little sleep over the past few nights. Now, my goal for this evening is to try and catch up on all of the things I have neglected. My room is a mess, with piles of books and papers everywhere, covered by a layer of clothes. I need to restore order back into my life.

But anyway, I will attempt to fill in the blank spots between now and my last post. Groundhog's Day came and went, marked only by a discussion with some other americans about the general humor of the ritual, as well as some debate over the technicalities of groundhog prophecy. The Superbowl Party, however, was great fun! It was held in my college's bar, and a surprising number of people showed up for the start of the game. A lot of them were american, but there were also some non-americans interested in all the fuss. It was a great game and of course I was elated when it became apparent that the Steelers would win. Kick-off started at 11pm, and I think I got back to my room around 3:30 on Monday morning. Kind of a rough way to start off a rough week, but oh well.

I got news mid-week that Paloma and Lourdes are coming to London and Paris for their spring break, and it looks like I will be able to join them in Paris for a weekend! Their trip co-incides with the start of my break, so hopefully I will be able to meet them in London for a day during my last week of classes, and then meet them again the following weekend in Paris! What fun! I am definitely looking forward to seeing them and having some adventures :)

I had, coincidently, decided that I would stay in England for a week after the start of my break, and then fly home to NJ for about a month. I know I had said in my last post that I really wanted to travel, but there was just no where that I was terribly excited about going by myself. Plus, there are some very promising trips in the future (South Africa, Cambodia and now Qatar??) that I thought it would be wise to save my money for. So I had kind of made peace with that decision when I heard from Lourdes and Paloma, and meeting them for a weekend in Paris seems like a perfect compromise.

So aside from massive quantities of schoolwork this week (I am literally starting to get carpal tunnel in my right wrist, which is a scary consideration as there are still a lot of papers in my future!) I joined Cambridge's synchronized swimming team, which is just getting off the ground. And no, I do not have any background in synchronized swimming, but the only prerequisite for the team was being a strong swimmer and being able to come to practice twice a week. So I am doing that and it is fun and good excercise.

Plus, I am still organizing the International Food Festival and dealing with its logistics, as well as with an exhibition in the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, which my seven classmates and I are organizing. Throw in the never-ending process of grant and fellowship applications, not to mention sleeping and eating and showering, and I have been really really busy recently. Oh yeah, and I like to go out and have fun too.

But anyway, now that my massive paper is done I can take a much-needed breather and get my life back on track. I miss everyone and hope that everyone is happy and healthy. I have also been giving Newmie's "resolution" a lot of thought and decided to make it mine as well. I am going to stop focusing on trying to find the physical place that makes me happy and instead focus on just me making me happy. Thanks for the wake-up call, Newmie, I needed that.